


There Ain’t No Finer Place To Be

by AdorableDoom



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Comics), Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Angst, Character Death, M/M, Quillock - Freeform, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-25
Updated: 2017-07-25
Packaged: 2018-12-06 17:01:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,631
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11604981
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdorableDoom/pseuds/AdorableDoom
Summary: Peter's face is the first thing he ever sees.





	There Ain’t No Finer Place To Be

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2.

  Life is bright.  
  Bright, brilliant, and blinding. There is pain too. Every nerve and neuron are alight as if they are being consumed by flames. And they are new, so very, very new. He is new. He is so very, very new.   
  He is awake, he is alive for what seems like a considerable amount of time although in reality it is probably only moments before it occurs to him to open his eyes. To look. To see. Everything is so bright. It's beautiful and painful in equal measure.   
  Slowly, as the light begins to recede into something more manageable, the dim shapes begin to finally take form. The first thing Adam sees when he opens his eyes is Peter Quill’s face. He is bruised and bloody but he is staring at Adam in something he will later be able to categorize as wonder. And then he smiled, nervous perhaps but not afraid though perhaps he should have been. “Hey, hi I'm Peter,” Peter offered after a moment, “and everything is on fire.”

  
  “I could’ve been a monster.”  
  “Yeah but you weren’t.”  
  “I could’ve been. Or worse.”  
  “But you weren’t.”  
  Adam sighed, shooting Peter a weary look. Peter just grinned. “You’re infuriating,” Adam said with no real heat. They are on Knowhere. It’s a strange place teeming with all manner of beings.   
  This is later.   
  After.   
  Although how long it had been since that first moment Adam can’t truly say. Time is a strange thing. Peter laughed at that, leaning not quite into his space but close enough that Adam could reach out and touch him if he wanted to. He is still grinning, wide and amused. It should be infuriating and it is more often than not but sometimes it isn't.  
  This time it isn’t.  
  “You know, I’ve been called an asshole a lot of different ways but that’s got to be the politest,” he said. Adam glares at him which Peter often finds amusing. This is one of those times given the way he is smiling. Adam doesn’t remember much of that first day, his first day. There was chaos and confusion and pain and urgency.   
  The thing that stands out in crystal clarity is Peter. The first face he ever laid eyes on. He had been confused to be certain; frantic. Peter Quill was many things in those first moments, Adam’s first moments, but he was not afraid. Not of Adam at least.   
  “You weren’t afraid of me,” Adam pointed out, “although perhaps you should have been.” Given the circumstances of his . . .birth and the previous encounters the Guardians had had with The Sovereign and in particular with Ayesha. By all rights, Peter should have been terrified and yet he wasn’t. Peter is quiet for several long moments, gazing out at the seemingly endless stream of ships that seemed to always be flowing to and from Knowhere. This is perhaps the longest Peter has been silent and its more than a little off putting the truth be told.  
  “In my experience,” Peter said finally, “the things that don’t look like you should be afraid of them are the things you should definitely be afraid of and the things that look like you should be terrified of are usually things you don’t need to be afraid of.” He doesn’t look at Adam as he says this. He is speaking, Adam knows, of his father. Both of them.   
  The one who made him.   
  The one who betrayed him.   
  The one who murdered his mother.   
  The one who stole him.   
  The one who raised him.   
  The one who saved him.  
  Adam did not know either of these men. He knows Peter. Peter who is insufferable but unfailingly kind. Peter who is selfish and selfless. Peter who looked at him and was not afraid even though he probably should have been. Peter who is his friend.   
  “You know,” Adam said finally, “I’ve been called terrifying a lot of different ways but that is perhaps the politest.” Peter whirled on him in surprise, face lighting up in a grin that seemed to consume his entire features. And then he begins to laugh with such force that Adam is momentarily worried that he fall over. “Was that a joke? Did you just make a joke?” Peter said between peels of laughter. Before Adam could respond, Peter leaned fully into his space and threw an arm around Adam’s shoulders and pulled him into an embrace and whatever it was he was going to say is forgotten.

  
  Peter Quill cannot sing.  
  He enjoys singing and does it often. But he cannot sing and sounds more a Skrull being eaten by some sort of large toothed creature. “You’re a terrible singer,” Adam tells him. “I’ve been telling him that for years!” Rocket yells from the cockpit of the ship. “It doesn't stop him!”   
  That actually does stop Peter from singing but only just long enough to lean around Adam to yell towards the cockpit. “You love my singing!” Peter yelled. Rocket laughed loud and harsh. “Yeah Quill sure I do! Same way I love a hole in the head! This is sarcasm by the way!” Rocket shouted back. Peter pulled a face and made a rude hand gesture in the direction of the cockpit although Rocket couldn’t see either of them.   
  “Okay so maybe I’m not a traditionally talented singer,” Peter said. “In this or any reality!” Rocket called out. Peter glared but ignored their friend. “But,” Peter went on as if he hadn't been interrupted, “I am a very good dancer.” He does this as often as he sings, sweeping up anyone and everyone as a partner whenever the occasion stuck him. Even Rocket which nearly always lead to him getting covered in bites and scratches but never seemed to stop him.   
   Today, his partner was Adam who he had pulled up and out of his seat into a kind of swaying motion to the beat as he sang loudly and off key to the music that seemed to perpetually be playing on their ship. “I’ve never danced with anyone else,” Adam pointed out. Peter just grinned. “Well, take it from me, I’m an expert and I can assure you that I am one of, no, I am the best dancer you’ll ever met,” Peter assured him. “No he isn’t!” Rocket laughed.   
  Peter swore loudly and creatively which only made the raccoon laugh even harder. Adam chuckled softly. Somehow he had found himself closer to Peter as the song played on, his arms draped around Peter’s neck and Peter’s hands are at his waist. Peter is warm, wonderfully so. “Well, you’re the best dancer I’ve ever danced with,” Adam assures him.   
  Peter stops glaring and yelling obscenities towards the cockpit then and smiles at him, warm and wide. Adam gives into his impulse and kisses him. His lips are warm too. Peter is startled for a moment but then he kisses him back, pulling him close and eliminating any space between them. The music is still playing. Some slow song about roads and lights. He doesn't register it.  
  “Are you finally kissing? Drax! You owe me 50 credits!”

  
  Peter’s face was the first thing that he saw.  
  It’s only fitting that it should be the last.  
  There is pain this time too. Terrible, blinding. It feels as if he is being consumed from the inside out. There is no light this time, there is only darkness. He is the darkness. A darkness that must be stopped.   
  No matter what it takes.  
  There is no wonder on Peter’s face this time, there is only pain and sorrow so great it seems a mirror of the agony of the darkness that Adam is only able to just barely keep at bay. And not for very much longer. “Please,” Adam begs. He wouldn't have known his own voice had he not been the ones to speak the words. “Please Peter, before it’s to late.”  
  For him.   
  For all of them.   
  For everything.  
  Peter shook his head, not in denial but in sadness. There are bruises and blood on his face this time too and tears as well. He levels the element gun at Adam. There is so much Adam wants to say to him. I love you.  
  I’m sorry.   
  There is so much he wants to say but there isn’t time.

  Time is strange.  
  Life is strange.  
  Death is stranger still.

  Peter is staring at him, unsure but hopefully tentative. “You’re back,” he said finally. “I am.” He is but he isn’t. He isn't the same Adam.  
But then again, none of them are the people that they once were. Yet they are still here and maybe that is all that matters. Peter took a step closer, not quiet touching but close enough that Adam could have reached out and touched him if he wanted to. He very much wants to. He won’t, not yet.  
  Peter took another step closer, reaching out slowly as if he half expected Adam to disappear like a dream or a specter and took his face in his hands. His hands are warm and calloused. Adam missed this in a way he doubts there are words to express. “It’s really you isn’t it?” Peter said hopefully. Yes and no.  
  “More or less,” Adam said truthfully. Peter let out a laugh that sounded more like a sob and pulled Adam into his embrace. Adam clung to him like he was in the only still point in the galaxy. “Don’t do that again,” Peter choked out against his shoulder. He might have been laughing but he might have been sobbing. He can’t promise that.  
   No one can.  
   Adam shouldn't be here.  
   He is.   
   “I’ll try not to,” Adam managed at last. It’s the best he promise. 

**Author's Note:**

> Listen, I’m not saying Marvel should hire me to write Guardians Vol. 3 but I am totally available to write Vol. 3. Just throwing that out there. Title comes from the song Lake Shore Drive by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah


End file.
